I’ve been on the piano faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland since 1979. In 1990 I hurt my right hand, an injury that caused almost constant pain in my hand, arm, elbow, shoulders and back. The injury occurred away from the piano, but in retrospect I suspect that it was made possible by years of misuse at the piano. Most everyday activities became difficult and painful, including washing dishes, ironing, carrying and lifting, turning a key in a lock, etc. I was unable to play the piano at all for over a year. Even the oom-pah-pah teacher accompaniments in...

My earliest technical training was in the tradition of the finger independence and stretching exercises that are far too familiar to most pianists. However, I eventually studied with a teacher who encouraged a technique that resulted in less stress to the body. This approach involved much relaxation and was a welcome change from the finger isolation of my earlier playing. For a number of years, I believed that this relaxed approach would prevent future injury and satisfy my needs as a pianist.

Unfortunately, as years passed I became less satisfied with my tone production. My sound often...

My mother keeps a picture of me reaching for the piano before I could even walk. Sound was a delight to me. Even when confined to my highchair I would shake crackers to see if they made noise. I remember crawling about the house opening drawers in order to hear the hollow closing. Nothing ever made the same sound twice. I was elated when my parents asked me if I wanted to take music lessons because an instrument meant instant sound—sound I could make myself, whenever I wanted.

Like so many pianists, I began my love affair with music at an early age, learning quickly and negotiating my way around the keyboard with a rather natural technique. And also like so many pianists, I began to experience difficulties when I moved into the advanced repertoire. The holding/stretching/finger independence exercises required by my college training proved disastrous to my hands, exacerbating the compensatory movements I acquired to handle the advanced literature, resulting in extreme tension and fatigue in my forearms, plus tendonitis in my right thumb and wrist. The symptoms were so extreme that I felt...

The doctor, in his starched white coat, intoned without empathy, “Why do you have to play music anyway? There are plenty of other jobs out there.”

I am a pianist for whom music is the only choice, and that was the lowest point in my pilgrimage from injury back to health. Truthfully, I was never aware how important music was to me until I could no longer play. I had always played — and thought I always would. Even before my parents enrolled me in formal...

Every day as I begin my early morning practice, I become aware of motion and sound. I take pleasure in knowing that coordination, fluidity and freedom have replaced tension, fatigue and discomfort.

I cannot remember a time when playing the piano was anything other than an intense struggle. By the time I was ten, I was already so injured that I felt I would never be able to play challenging repertoire. At seventeen I was accepted to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where, four years later, I limped through my senior recital playing music I loved with...

I was about 57 years old when I started to feel shooting pains in my fingers and hands. I had been a piano teacher for 30 years and had performed, primarily as a chamber music pianist, on a professional series in Atlanta of which I was artistic director. I was fortunate in being able to associate with first chair Atlanta Symphony players and their equivalent. I had come from the school of "play with your foot if you have to" as long as you create the sound you want, which I now know can cause all kinds of injuries. I saw...

Hi John:
First of all, I want to say a BIG THANK YOU for taking the time from your Christmas holiday to spend time with my son Brian helping him out with his piano playing. I was very impressed by your insight and ability to identify Brian's issues so readily, and most importantly come up with solutions to fix the physical, technical and musical issues he's developed from years of improper position when playing piano.
I was particularly impressed with your ability to relate these important and detailed points to the level of a 12-year...

Before I studied with Edna Golandsky I had tremendous shoulder pain and my sound was weak. I felt that my technique had gone as far as it could go and that there was no hope for improvement. As a result of working with Edna, my pain is gone. In addition, my tone and my ability to express music are far better than I ever thought they could be. I was able to make these changes in spite of the fact that I had to continue playing all the while to earn a living. Edna’s brilliant teaching is...

It was the end of August 1988, driving home from a summer of performing at the Aspen Festival, that I first noticed complete numbness in my right arm. I couldn’t hold the steering wheel or find any position where my arm felt comfort or relief. The thought of tendinitis had never even occurred to me. I thought the periodic shooting pains and heaviness in my arm that I had been feeling over the summer were a result of performing pressure and anxiety.

Not taking the situation very seriously, I began my senior year at the New...

The first time I met Robert Durso was at a piano summer course given by pianist/scholar Paul Roberts at Castelfranc in France. It soon became apparent to me that Robert’s methods of teaching were of a kind I had not previously encountered. What struck me was that his instructions unfailingly produced an immediate response in terms of better sound and the sensation of less physical effort. I realized that instead of being founded on an uncritical reference to tradition, or more or less superstitious assumptions, the instructions were based on a deep knowledge and understanding of...